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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Giveaway Winner + Survey Result Highlights

Survey Result Highlights:
The results of the blog reader survey were varied, with answers covering all ends of the spectrum. But here are some of the results that dominated...

Most of the people answering (not all regular blog readers as an email went out to all KEH customers) are male, and over 35. Intermediate - Advanced level, and primarily hobbyist/ semi-pro photographers. We also had a bunch of photo educators which was great to see.

Most of you do not have any professional photography training, although there were still a large number of you that did. The preferred mediums were- Digital SLR's in at #1, 35mm at #2, and Medium Format at #3.

The vast majority of our readers are in fact KEH customers, and would like to see content posted either once a day or a few times a week (great, this is exactly the frequency we've been at!).

For favorite types of posts, "Tips" took the #1 spot. Other favorites are (not in any order): Film, equipment maintenance, troubleshooting, Items for sale, behind the scenes, guides, cameras, lenses, lighting, DIY and crafts, digital, and Photos of the month/ featured photographers.

Facebook still seems to be the winner for the #1 social media site that you are both on, and follow us on.

Now, lets get down to some of the nitty gritty. Many of the responses were either really helpful or wonderful to read. We have such a variety of customers and readers that of course all of the content can't suit every single individual all of the time. That's why we try to have a variety, so that there is often something for everyone, no matter what system you prefer, what skill level you are at, or what type of photography you are passionate about.

Topics. We had so many great topic suggestions, so thank you all for that! I will start looking into some of these very soon. I would like for you to keep something in mind though... sometimes someone suggests a topic, which is usually a great topic idea, but the reason we may not follow up and post about it is because we don't have someone to write it. We try really hard to post content that comes from a knowledgeable source. We want to make sure that the writer knows what they are talking about, is a decent writer, can communicate the information effectively, and of course has the time (and agrees) to write it. This is often a difficult combination to find, and if it's a topic that we are not 100% confident that we know enough about to share, then we don't want to write about it just to write about it, because that really doesn't end up benefiting anyone. As an example of this, someone suggested topics on astrophotograhy. That sounds great, but I personally know nothing about that, and I don't know of anyone else here that is well versed in it either. So in order to cover this topic appropriately, we would need to find an outside contributor. Then, make sure that their craft is up to par, they have an interesting topic to share, and that they actually have decent writing skills. If this describes you, then please let us know, but until then, you probably won't see much on this topic here- sorry.

I was a little surprised to see so many of you wanting more film topics! We can definitely do this, so do stay tuned for more on film in the future.

There were a lot of suggestions for topics or features that we have already covered or have available. "Invite reader contributions"- we do! Check out the "Contribute" tab at the top of the page for more information. There are also a few ways to go back and find these topics easily... you can look under the "Article Index" tab at the top of the page, search by label (or topic) under the "Topic Quick Links" on the right of the page, or enter keywords into the "Search this blog" box on the right also.

To finish this all up, I want to say that I read each and every comment and that we really do value your opinion. Thank you to everyone who participated and we hope you'll keep coming back!

Giveaway Winner:
Now that many of you have been waiting for, the winner of our recent blogiversary and blog reader survey giveaway is... Brett Hammond! Congrats Brett! Please email us at kehcamerablog(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize.